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Farm4Profit Podcast

BRIDGE Payments, Farm Bill Plans & The Future of USDA Tech

11 Mar 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What do producers need to know about BRIDGE payments?

0.031 - 26.106 Unknown

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26.086 - 40.045 Unknown

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40.21 - 51.26 Unknown

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51.5 - 69.255 David Whitaker

But we've been asked over the years to have a virtual portal, a way to interact, not only with FSA, but the other agencies within the mission area, in a way that we don't have to go to the office. We've got better things to do with our time. And so this has been the option.

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70.923 - 93.252 Tanner Winterhof

Ladies and gentlemen, farmers, ranchers, and distinguished guests, thank you for listening to the Farm for Profit podcast, where we discuss the latest ideas, methods, trends, and techniques available to help your farm achieve higher levels of farm profitability. Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.

102.243 - 124.22 Unknown

So the Farm for Profit podcast, we've been around since 2014. We've done over 700 episodes, and we've focused a lot on telling the stories of farmers who have been there and done that or sharing tips, trends, techniques, new pieces of technology that are going to help farmers make more money. So that's the perspective that a lot of our content comes from. Fantastic.

124.24 - 132.233 Unknown

We are all farmers, and we have an absolute blast getting the pleasure to host podcasts. We get to come and meet a lot of people out here, just to give you a little background on who we are.

132.253 - 138.482 David Whitaker

Yeah. So farm where? Central Iowa. So I'm just down the road. I'm in Bethany, Missouri.

138.602 - 141.178 Richard Fordyce

Yeah. Oh, hey. Yeah. Missouri boy.

Chapter 2: How is USDA modernizing its technology for farmers?

187.192 - 210.606 David Whitaker

So this job, the undersecretary for farm production and conservation. So I'm an undersecretary. So I serve at the will of the president, serve at the will of Secretary Rollins. And the mission area has all of the farmer facing agencies. So it's NRCS, FSA. And RMA are the agencies within the Farm Production and Conservation Missionary.

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210.987 - 214.032 Unknown

More acronyms. But all stuff that we know very well.

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214.052 - 222.404 David Whitaker

So you can't function in the federal government unless you have a whole bunch of acronyms? Yeah. Yeah. That's how we talk.

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222.424 - 222.845 Unknown

It's code.

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222.865 - 223.786 David Whitaker

It's code.

224.607 - 233.3 Unknown

You don't even need to disguise it. You just talk in real acronyms and nobody really understands. That's right. Well, that's good. Well, Corey and Dave both got on their laptops since we've been in San Antonio.

233.32 - 233.721 David Whitaker

We did.

233.741 - 235.103 Unknown

Got signed up for their bridge payments.

235.083 - 238.448 David Whitaker

Fantastic. How long did it take? Not long at all. I know.

Chapter 3: What is the significance of the upcoming U.S.-China trade meeting?

271.166 - 277.736 Corey Hillebo

And there's more stuff going online, correct? There is, yeah. Before everything, we had to go to the FSA office. We had to get there.

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277.856 - 280.299 David Whitaker

Yeah. Yeah, you had to physically go there.

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280.319 - 281.02 Corey Hillebo

You had to get in the truck.

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281.04 - 284.005 Unknown

It was a lot of old, antiquated, pen and paper type stuff.

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284.025 - 284.125

Yeah.

284.307 - 308.847 David Whitaker

Yeah, emphasis on paper. Yeah. Paper. And we could talk about acreage reporting in a minute if you want to. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so we knew for a number of reasons how we needed to modernize, you know, be more – so advance technology a little bit farther when it comes to farmers engaging with the agencies. And so there's a number of reasons for that. One is –

309.299 - 322.384 David Whitaker

If you put a form in an envelope and run it through the U.S. Postal Service, it costs, depending on the program, it costs us between $1.2 million, $1.3 million for each program, just to mail to mail. an application out.

322.424 - 323.285 Unknown

And how many got lost?

323.506 - 350.697 David Whitaker

Well, I'm sure there were several. I'm actually not being critical of the US Postal Service. That just happens, right? But it does, yeah. There's machines and they suck under the bottom and they're gone. So we knew we could save some money there. And then just, we've been asked by, and it's not strictly generational, but we've been asked over the years to have a virtual portal, a way to interact

Chapter 4: What are the priorities for the upcoming Farm Bill?

393.122 - 415.379 David Whitaker

And that One Farmer, One File is part policy. It's part technology. But if you're engaging with FSA on a program or if you're doing something with NRCS and and you've got things you're working with your crop insurance agent on, you're likely signing forms or doing something that is redundant to what you just may have done at another agency.

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415.399 - 428.128 David Whitaker

So streamlining those forms and allowing those forms in a digital format to talk to one another and talk to the other agencies. You're only doing this once. You're not doing it three times.

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428.148 - 436.389 Corey Hillebo

So we're bringing the government into 2026. It's shocking. That's what you're saying. It's shocking, but yes. The rest of the world operates there. I'm just making sure.

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436.429 - 443.627 David Whitaker

The rest of the world does operate there, and we don't. We currently don't. I've said bring it into the current century.

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443.607 - 452.259 Unknown

Well, is this allowing you guys to do more with less people? Because I know there's a lot of county offices that have consolidated to, like, one county is running three counties.

452.279 - 474.877 David Whitaker

Right, right. I think that's a piece of it. You know, and so we still, you know, we still absolutely value that county office presence. There are just times when you're going to need to talk to a human. Yeah. And so, again, we talk about we're meeting farmers where they are. Yeah. And that's... That's a decision that individual farmer makes, right?

475.137 - 495.296 David Whitaker

And so having the opportunity to do things virtually, digitally, also having that presence in the office, but the technology modernization, so the one farmer, one file piece, we've not done the analysis on how many staff hours that will reduce, but it'll be a bunch. But the cool thing that's coming is modernized acreage reporting.

495.316 - 510.294 David Whitaker

And so currently, if you report your acres at FSA, maybe don't report them through RMA, We're going to give you a paper map and a pencil, and we're going to ask you to literally write corn in that field and the date you planted it.

510.314 - 526.389 David Whitaker

And once you get your farm all filled out and all those fields, you're going to slide that paper map back across the counter to the program analyst in the office, and then he or she are going to do a data entry. And they're basically going to enter in everything that you just drew with a pencil on a paper map. Lottery tendency.

Chapter 5: How can farmers apply for BRIDGE payments effectively?

576.135 - 596.381 David Whitaker

So phase two. And so, so you'll have to go to the office to report that, but it's going to be under a whole different, whole different format in the way we do that. Once you report it in that geospatial platform, the geospatial map layer in this platform. When you enter corn on May 1st, then it is in. Nobody's got to type anything in. There's no data entry.

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596.922 - 623.72 David Whitaker

Phase two is you'll be able to do that very same thing on a phone. But that's not where we're going. And that's probably next year. The final phase of the modernized acreage reporting is literally, if you've got Green Star, you can grant permissions just like you share with your crop insurance agent, your fertilizer dealer, whatever. Be an API right into OpsCenter. Exactly.

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624.4 - 638.702 David Whitaker

And so we're actually working with John Deere, and we're working with Case IH, and we're working with Any manufacturer that's going to. And so when you're finished, I mean, there's a lot of ways this could go, but let's say you're not really worried about it until you're done planning.

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638.722 - 656.69 David Whitaker

When you're done planning, you know, there's going to be some option in Green Star because we're truly working with the manufacturers as well right now. There'll be an option in Green Star that says share with FSA. And you'll do that, and that planning information has now populated your acreage report.

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657.151 - 657.231

Yep.

657.464 - 661.416 David Whitaker

I mean, this is super cool to go from a paper map and a pencil to this maybe in two years.

661.436 - 663.301 Unknown

And then some DocuSign. You can sign it.

663.682 - 664.605 David Whitaker

Absolutely.

664.846 - 666.089 Unknown

It's changing fast.

Chapter 6: What technology upgrades are being implemented at USDA?

757.55 - 767.183 David Whitaker

And I think the president, the secretary, the undersecretary for trade at USDA, they're laser focused on finding new markets in the international market space.

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767.203 - 767.704 Corey Hillebo

I'm glad to hear it.

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768.085 - 783.468 David Whitaker

And I'm very confident they're going to accomplish that. And these will look different than what we historically have seen. We've been so reliant on China, for example, in the soybean space. That, you know, maybe China is still going to be a trading partner. I mean, they will have to be.

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784.61 - 796.472 David Whitaker

But looking at looking at places where we maybe don't have trade today and could be critical markets, as you see, like population shifts, population growth in countries. And I'm very confident we're going to get there.

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796.492 - 809.018 Unknown

I like that. I got one more. You got one more? I didn't. You can go. I just wanted to know for our listeners where you think our next big win is coming from. What's the closest thing we think to tipping over a potential change that's going to affect us in a positive way?

809.159 - 814.103 David Whitaker

Yeah, you know, it's a great question, and it's a hard question.

814.123 - 815.425 Unknown

We've got Farm Bill coming up.

815.445 - 820.35 David Whitaker

We've got ethanol stuff. Yeah, you know, I think, you know.

820.39 - 822.432 Unknown

President's going to China in April, I think.

Chapter 7: How will the Farm Bill impact agricultural policies in 2026?

924.199 - 924.379 David Whitaker

Yeah.

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924.92 - 925.421 Unknown

Yeah.

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925.441 - 939.848 David Whitaker

Yeah. And so, you know, while we're talking about technology modernization, we're also looking at regulatory reform or process improvement. Right. And, So the NRCS chief works for me, and she was talking this morning in a meeting we had on the NEPA regulations.

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939.908 - 954.838 David Whitaker

So you do a conservation practice, you've got to have all the NEPA inspections done, and you've got to check all these boxes, and you've got to have four or five different people come out and look and make sure you're not disturbing something. She's streamlining that, and she's streamlining it to the point of,

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954.953 - 969.156 David Whitaker

Still offering protections for landowners that want to do conservation practices so five years from now you don't get sued by somebody. And also complying with the law. But there's some things in there that we don't have to do. And so if we don't have to do them, why are we doing them?

969.176 - 981.598 Corey Hillebo

There you go. Well, Tanner's going to have to wrap us up. We do. You've got places to be. I've got one question. What do you got? We're fun guys. We've got fun shirts. You do. Beer, cocktail, or wine? Beer. There it is. What kind of beer? Is there a beer of choice?

982.66 - 982.94 David Whitaker

Cold.

983.341 - 986.587 Corey Hillebo

Cold. There you go. That's good. Thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. Absolutely.

986.607 - 987.609 Unknown

Thank you. Great to meet you.

Chapter 8: What future challenges and opportunities do farmers face in the global market?

1063.628 - 1085.856 Unknown

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1085.836 - 1097.736 Unknown

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